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PTA/Tomato/RDShade

Featured Replies

Dear All,

I would kindly appreciate some advice regarding shaders for P3D v4. Currently I am sticking to the platform and skipping v5 as I anticipate a move to MSFS when FENIX is released. In the mean time what is my best option to improve the graphics? Currently I am using Tomatoshade but not happy with the effects at night. Things appear yellow and dynamic lighting at airports like Simwings Heathrow are too bright. (During the day it is acceptable)

Would purchasing RD shade make a difference? Or can better results be found with PTA? I have purchased a copy also. 

Please let me know as flying at night is really disappointing. 

Have to say you're missing out not moving to v5.

I held on to v4 for a long while (mainly because I had a 6gb 980ti).  Got a 1080 (8gb) from a friend and now can run v5 happily in 4K with good settings.  So much better - the performance is better, and the EA now looks really good.  The lighting and reflections in the sim are so much better.

To actually answer your question: I don't think you need to purchase anything else.
Maybe a few screenshots could help us?  I didn't have things like this in P3D v4.5 with tomato or PTA - I actually preferred it's night environment to v5 to be honest.
 

Cheers

Simwings Heathrow just isn't that great with it's night effects. There was a thread over at Aerosoft with a fix to dim the dynamic lighting a bit however the main issue is that it uses both dynamic lighting and bright baked-in night textures. 

Shader mods won't do much to improve the sim at night unless you want to mess with the brightness of terrain/autogen textures - I've spent a fair bit of time doing that feel the default values are the best.

Upgrading to a new IPS-Black monitor (or FALD/OLED panel) can be a vast improvement to the night, as it has a 2000:1 contrast ratio. 

Another tip I recommend is adjusting the following value in Prepar3d.cfg from 'true' to 'false' 

MOON_PHASE_LIGHTING=

Edited by DModjo

  • Author

Thanks @VHOJT 

Yes I know, many people have told me the same but given in a few months we should see the likes of PMDG/FENIX (I hope) moving to MSFS and my GPU a 3080 I will simply spend the cash in that domain as the products are far superior. 

I saw a program called RESHADE do you use that on V5 and does it help?

  • Author
11 minutes ago, DModjo said:

Simwings Heathrow just isn't that great with it's night effects. There was a thread over at Aerosoft with a fix to dim the dynamic lighting a bit however the main issue is that it uses both dynamic lighting and bright baked-in night textures. 

Shader mods won't do much to improve the sim at night unless you want to mess with the brightness of terrain/autogen textures - I've spent a fair bit of time doing that feel the default values are the best.

Upgrading to a new IPS-Black monitor, or FALD/OLED panel can be a vast improvement to the night, as it has a 2000:1 contrast ratio.

Another tip I recommend is adjusting the following value in Prepar3d.cfg from 'true' to 'false' 

MOON_PHASE_LIGHTING=

 

Thanks @DModjo will give it a try!

Yes indeed, great shame about Aerosoft Simwings Heathrow, terrible night lighting on their end it seems. 

Edit: Have tried moon_phase_lighting thank you! 

Edited by Rusty

21 minutes ago, Rusty said:

 

Thanks @DModjo will give it a try!

Yes indeed, great shame about Aerosoft Simwings Heathrow, terrible night lighting on their end it seems. 

Edit: Have tried moon_phase_lighting thank you! 

Did you try this: 

Inibuilds make great dynamic lighting mods for 3rd party airports - vastly improving the look (not outrageously bright) and FPS impact.  You need their library files too (see the link).  It's free.

I use their files for nearly all my add-on airports where they exist (except for Flightbeam KSFO - they did a good job already):

https://forum.inibuilds.com/files/file/774-aerosoft-london-heathrow/

 

  • Author

@VHOJT Thanks a bunch bro! You have no idea how happy this made me, visibly better experience now. Things still a bit yellow'ish but will do until the move to MSFS! 

On 4/10/2022 at 6:49 AM, Rusty said:

@VHOJT Thanks a bunch bro! You have no idea how happy this made me, visibly better experience now. Things still a bit yellow'ish but will do until the move to MSFS! 

Good stuff mate. 

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